My daughter climbed the stairs this morning for the first time. What have you achieved?

Ha! I’ll tell you what I’ve done in terms of productivity: nada.

I have been taking some time off after a great spell of teaching, spending time with my two bubbas, resting, Ascending, cooking, walking, reading. In the meantime emails are backing up, messages are going unanswered. It is a great joy to NOT attend to all that, just for a day or two.

Interesting how our culture confuses success solely with doing and with productivity, right?

Trouble is - and I would say just about everyone suffers from this - no one has any balance. Everyone is stressed and exhausted. Trying to do everything all at once. No rest and recharge, no getting things in perspective, very little kicking back - just more and more exhaustion along with the subsequent reacting, flying off the handle, getting sick, all the time.

Success, true success that is, changes. Success is different to you, all the time.

Expectations - those sometimes ridiculous over the top expectations - don’t change. Those thoughts that say you should do this, that, and the other thing, all with the perfect hair (being bald means perfect hair is a given - unless we’re talking the comb over; now that is hard to pull off) …

But expectations are never about listening, tuning in to what you need to do right now. Force comes in over fluidity, you push and you push and yet sometimes the most successful thing you will do all day is climb the stairs. Or see your daughter’s smile as she reaches the top for the first time.

Check out your mind, your patterns, your shoulds and insistences. Be aware of forcing something. Sometimes the greatest thing you can do is take a complete break. Sometimes the greatest thing you can do is back off.

The more you do it, the more you find you get so much from it.

Go well!

Arjuna

PS. I have a little mindfulness/awareness programme that will help with making sure you get little mini-breaks during the day.

Head this way to get the details, and the link to join the Facebook group for some excellent reminders to help you remember: